My journey as a single adoptive mom to two teenage boys who spent years in foster care and a toy dachshund puppy, a westie mix, and a shepherd mix. Some might consider our home a combination of homeless shelter, fraternity house, and humane society. I call it home.

He said "apparently you think I should do my homework". I calmly explained that by saying apparently he was basically saying he didn't agree with me.

He screamed about how it will be another year until he is invited to a Halloween party. He screamed about how he is stupid and should just die. Is that what I want?

Nope. I want you to do your homework.

You chose to be deceitful for DAYS and now it is due tomorrow. You had DAYS to do it. This could have all been avoided.

He screamed about how I didn't accept his apology. I absolutely did. There are still consequences for your actions. If you shoot someone saying you are sorry doesn't get you out of going to prison. It shows your remorse.

Could he have a "second chance"? I asked how many times he has lied about homework recently. He replied by telling me he told the truth once. That isn't what I asked. I asked how many times he had lied about homework. He said about twenty. I explained that he isn't asking for a second chance then. He is asking for a twenty-first chance. I asked if he thought that was reasonable. He said no.

He did not go to youth group.

He did all of the homework in his homework folder. It wasn't without incident, but it got done.

Hopefully a lesson was learned, but I think there are more hard lessons when it comes to homework to show I am serious.